Boycott
In 1962 at Bradford cricket's longest-running saga began. A modest bespectacled youth took guard in his first match for Yorkshire. Twenty-two years and 44,210 runs later a Geoffrey Boycott in contact lenses and with an advancing hairline still plays for Yorkshire-just. For earlier this year it looked as if this controversial cricketer would never again play for his county. The man who had scored more runs than any other for his country, had been sacked. But in an extraordinary winter of discontent at the state of cricket in Yorkshire, grass roots members of the Club swept away the club hierarchy and restored their idol to his plinth. The dramatic putsch highlighted yet again cricket's love-hate relationship with Geoffrey Boy cott -a man once voted in the same poll the most-liked and the least-liked cricketer in the country.
To friends he is a dedicated professional, the embodiment of Yorkshire grit, persecuted and badly mishandled. To his foes he is a selfish, ill-mannered bore, the ruination of younger players in his blinkered pursuit of his own personal record. All eyes will be on Geoffrey Boycott at the start of a cricket season that promises to be one of the most fascinating on record.
Film cameraman GRAHAM SMITH Sound DAVID TURTON
Film editor JANE VAL BAKER
Executive producer ROGER MILLS Producer ANDY STEVENSON